“The apartment will be ready for the deed. The pool and gardens will follow.”
That arrangement may be acceptable, but it creates a question that a delivery date for the apartment alone does not answer: what legally requires the remaining facilities to be completed, by whom and by when?
Before signing a reservation or purchase agreement, identify the unfinished facilities in the project documents, establish the rights your apartment will have over them and examine the obligations that survive the transfer. A finished interior does not establish that the development supporting your purchase is ready, or that you have adequate protection if it remains incomplete.
Short answer
You may be able to buy an apartment before all shared facilities are finished, but you should not assume that transferring ownership guarantees their later delivery. Check the facilities’ legal status, the responsible party, completion deadlines, interim access and services, costs and consequences of delay. Essential infrastructure and optional amenities require different assessments, including appropriate technical advice.
Is the missing facility essential infrastructure or an amenity?
Start by distinguishing what the property needs to function from what makes the development attractive.
An unfinished pool may affect the enjoyment and value of a holiday apartment. An incomplete access road, drainage system or utility connection can raise different questions about access, lawful occupation, safety and the practical use of the property. Landscaping may be largely decorative, but unfinished external works can also involve retaining structures, lighting or routes used by residents.
The description “common areas still being finished” is therefore too broad to support a purchase decision.
| Outstanding item | Main question before commitment |
|---|---|
| Access road or pedestrian route | What lawful and practical access will exist at handover? |
| Drainage or utility infrastructure | Can the unit be used as intended, and what technical evidence supports that conclusion? |
| Pool, gym or leisure area | What right will the buyer acquire, and what obligation requires completion and availability? |
| Shared gardens and external lighting | Which works are outstanding, to what specification and by what date? |
| Garage access or shared gates | Will the purchased parking space be practically accessible when possession is delivered? |
| Reception or other managed facilities | Who provides the service, under which agreement and at whose cost? |
A lawyer assesses the documents and legal obligations. A qualified technical professional must address the relevant physical, safety and building-compliance questions.
The buyer needs both perspectives where the unfinished works affect more than appearance.
Are the facilities part of what you are buying?
A facility shown in the brochure is not necessarily a common part owned by the apartment buyers.
Depending on the development’s legal structure, a pool or garden might be a condominium asset, a separately owned facility subject to access rights, or part of a commercial service operated under another agreement. Infrastructure may also be subject to arrangements with the municipality.
These structures are not interchangeable. They affect who controls the facility, who pays for it and what the buyer can require.
Before proceeding, establish:
- Where the facility is located and how the documents identify it.
- Who owns the relevant land and structures.
- Whether the apartment acquires ownership rights, a right of use or access under a service agreement.
- Whether access involves additional fees or contractual conditions.
- Whether the developer reserves powers to change the facility or its operation.
A masterplan helps locate the promised result. It does not, by itself, establish the buyer’s entitlement to it.
For the wider building framework, read our guide to condominium documents to check before buying an apartment in Italy.
Which documents establish the obligation to finish?
Look for an identifiable obligation in the transaction documents, supported by the relevant project records.
The important documents may include the reservation agreement, purchase offer, preliminary contract, attached plans, technical specifications and construction schedule. The capitolato, the specification document, should be read alongside the agreement rather than treated as a separate sales brochure.
Where relevant, the file should also include the convenzione urbanistica, an agreement with the municipality, and associated undertakings concerning infrastructure or development obligations.
These documents answer different questions. A planning agreement may establish obligations towards a public authority without giving the buyer the same rights or remedies under the purchase contract. Conversely, a contractual promise does not replace the necessary authorisations or technical requirements.
The review should connect:
- The promised facility.
- Its approved or documented configuration.
- The party responsible for delivering it.
- The contractual commitment made to the buyer.
- The evidence required to demonstrate completion.
An undertaking to apply for approval is not an undertaking to deliver an operational facility by an agreed date.
What if the facilities belong to a later construction phase?
The buyer should understand whether completion depends on an event outside the timetable for their apartment.
A developer may intend to build the pool with a second block, finish the gardens after heavy construction ends or open a shared service only when enough units are occupied. That sequencing may have a practical explanation. It still needs to be evaluated against the purchase terms.
Ask whether the outstanding works depend on:
- Further permits or project changes.
- Acquisition or availability of additional land.
- Construction of another building.
- Sales of a specified number of units.
- A separate contractor or operating company.
- Completion of infrastructure serving several phases.
“Phase two” is a project label, not a deadline.
If the buyer is accepting that dependency, the agreement should make its significance understandable. A facility promised for a fixed date presents a different risk from one planned only after sufficient additional sales.
What must remain binding after the apartment transfers?
The purchase documents should make clear which unfinished obligations continue after ownership and possession pass to the buyer.
There are several separate milestones:
- Completion of works inside the apartment.
- Availability of the relevant completion and occupancy documentation.
- Execution of the final deed.
- Delivery of possession and keys.
- Completion of shared works.
- Opening or operational availability of a facility.
These events need not always occur together. They should not be blurred into a single reference to “completion”.
If a shared facility is materially important, the contractual assessment should address its defined scope, completion date, permitted extensions, evidence of performance and consequences of non-performance. It should also examine whether later documents contain acknowledgements of full performance, acceptance provisions or waivers inconsistent with the outstanding obligation.
The distinction is between accepting a defined period of unfinished work and accepting an undefined promise.
Can the developer change the promised facilities?
Check the variation provisions before assuming that the plans attached to the sales presentation are fixed.
A contract may reserve powers to alter layouts, materials, landscaping or common areas. The issue is not whether every adjustment must be prohibited. It is whether the developer’s discretion could materially change something essential to the buyer’s decision.
For example, replacing one planting scheme with another is different from removing the promised pool, relocating a pedestrian route or changing the legal basis on which residents use a facility.
Read the variation provisions together with the plans, specifications and contractual description. A detailed drawing offers limited reassurance if another clause gives broad powers to change the result.
Our guide to buying off-plan property in Italy addresses the wider developer-purchase framework. Here, the narrower question is what remains deliverable after your own unit is ready.
Who pays while the development is incomplete?
Separate the cost of completing the promised works from the cost of operating the facilities once available.
The buyer should understand whether the developer remains responsible for construction expenditure and whether any documents could allocate outstanding costs to owners. Where development or municipal obligations are involved, a statement in the sale agreement should not be assumed to resolve every potential liability towards third parties.
Operating costs require a separate assessment. A projected annual service charge may assume that the whole development is occupied, that all facilities are running or that a particular management arrangement is in place.
Before accepting the budget, establish:
- Which services will actually operate at handover.
- When charges for each service begin.
- How costs are allocated during the initial phase.
- Whether temporary arrangements create additional expenditure.
- Whether the quoted amount is an estimate or a contractual commitment.
Do not assume that an unopened facility means no related costs, or that every charge requested is justified. Examine the basis of the charge.
Can part of the price be retained until the works are finished?
A retention or controlled-release arrangement may be worth considering, but it is not an automatic entitlement or a universal solution.
Any proposed mechanism needs agreement on the amount, holder, release conditions, evidence of completion and treatment of delay or disagreement. It must also fit the wider payment structure and the arrangements accepted by the professionals involved.
Do not simply withhold a contractual payment without advice on your existing obligations.
New-build guarantees require their own analysis. A guarantee protecting certain advance payments is not automatically security for every uncompleted amenity after the transfer. Likewise, a ten-year insurance policy for qualifying construction defects should not be treated as a general promise that a pool, garden or service will open on schedule.
The relevant question is what the actual instrument covers, not whether the development is described as “fully guaranteed”.
A hypothetical purchase: the apartment is ready, but the pool is not
A couple living abroad agrees to buy a €480,000 apartment in a development with a shared pool and landscaped grounds. The apartment is expected to be ready for transfer in December. The sales team says that the pool will open the following summer.
The draft agreement identifies the apartment but describes the pool only through an indicative masterplan. It does not specify an opening deadline, and a variation clause allows changes to the external areas.
The buyers intend to use the property for summer holidays. Before committing, they need to establish the pool’s legal status, their entitlement to use it, the outstanding authorisations and works, and the obligation the seller is prepared to undertake. They also need appropriate technical confirmation of the interim access and services.
They may accept a documented later delivery, seek different terms or decide that the uncertainty is inconsistent with their purchase. The decision changes once “next summer” is tested against the documents.
How Govoni Law can assist
Govoni Law provides independent buyer-side legal advice to foreign buyers purchasing throughout Italy.
For a development with unfinished shared facilities, legal due diligence can investigate the relevant title and project documents, development obligations, proposed rights, payment exposure and contractual risks. We explain what the evidence establishes, what remains unresolved and which protections should be considered.
Drafting, amending and negotiating those protections is a separate activity. Our purchase offer and preliminary contract assistance can be agreed alongside the investigation or under a separate engagement.
Due diligence does not automatically include negotiation, review of the final deed or assistance through completion. Nor does legal work replace technical inspections, construction supervision or an assessment of whether unfinished infrastructure permits the intended use.
Frequently asked questions
Can I complete the purchase before the shared pool is finished?
Possibly, but the answer depends on the development, relevant technical and legal requirements, and your agreement. Establish what you receive at transfer and what enforceable obligation remains outstanding. The apartment’s finished appearance does not answer those questions.
Does ownership of the apartment automatically give me ownership of every advertised facility?
No. The legal structure and title documents must establish the relevant rights. Some facilities may be separately owned or accessed through a service arrangement.
Is “completion after phase two” a sufficient deadline?
It may describe a sequence without providing a reliable date. Investigate what phase two depends on and how the contract deals with postponement or non-completion.
Can I refuse to sign the deed if the gardens are incomplete?
That cannot be answered from the missing gardens alone. It depends on existing obligations, the significance of the outstanding work, contractual milestones and the applicable remedies. Obtain advice before refusing performance or missing a deadline.
Does an advance-payment guarantee cover unfinished facilities after the deed?
Do not assume so. Its scope, duration and triggering events must be checked. Protection for specified pre-transfer payments is different from security for a post-transfer construction obligation.
Checklist before signing or paying
For each unfinished facility, establish:
- Its location and documentary identification.
- Its owner and the rights your apartment will acquire.
- The party responsible for construction and opening.
- Any outstanding approvals or dependencies.
- The agreed specification and limits on changes.
- A defined deadline and permitted extensions.
- Interim access, services and technical suitability.
- Responsibility for completion costs and initial operating charges.
- Evidence required before the obligation is treated as fulfilled.
- Payment arrangements and consequences of delay.
Send the documents behind the promise
If you are buying in an Italian development where shared facilities will follow later, contact Govoni Law before the next signature or payment.
Send the brochure, masterplan, complete proposed agreement, specifications, available construction schedule and payment request. Identify which facilities are essential to your decision and the deadline you have been given.
We confirm availability, scope and fees in writing before starting substantive work. Contacting the firm does not suspend obligations or deadlines already in place.
Your apartment’s delivery date should not leave the rest of your purchase without one.